


Penumbra

by ChibisUnleashed



Category: Saiyuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Also nymphs, But like a thousand years later so it's credit cards and modern slang in turn-of-the-century Asia, But like saiyuki-standard violence, Fairies!, Fantasy AU, Historical AU, Humor, I don't make the rules Minekura did it first, LAMPLIGHTER!, Lots of foul language, M/M, Tags to be added as this goes along, That weird mix of modern and ancient that means credit cards and cars in ancient China, also elves, possibly graphic violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22060312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChibisUnleashed/pseuds/ChibisUnleashed
Summary: The whole point of taking a quiet job in a quiet town was keeping his head down to protect the scripture. If no one ever cared to notice him, then no one would care to notice that he had power, or try to take that power from him.So Sanzo is understandably irritated when the fairy he rescues from a five hundred year nap in some obscure rock on an even more obscure mountain doesn't just go on his way like Sanzo meant him to. No, the idiot (kind of) moves in, (kind of) invites his friends, and (kind of) makes a spectacle out of Sanzo and his formerly quiet life.There's no way this is going to end well.
Relationships: Genjo Sanzo/Son Goku
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17
Collections: Minekura Secret Santa 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the Minekura exchange mods for all of the work they put in this year!! We recognize your dedication and love you for it <3
> 
> This is all for Fumi!! You asked for 393 and fantasy or historical AU and I went classic El Dorado gif on it. From the get-go I knew the ideas in my head were going to make for a 10k or longer multi-chapter and that I probably would not get all of it done before posting, but since the rules stated I needed at least one chapter, and I knew I'd have more than just one for you, I went for it. I hope that was the right decision and you don't hate me for it. The prompt I went for was Lunar Eclipse. I am so nervous omg. I really hope you like this!

The double-vision was giving him a God damned headache.

Not that he had had much of a choice, but as a youth Sanzo had imagined seeing the True World and protecting the scripture to be, at least, a  _ little  _ cool. Now, he wished pain medicine didn’t interfere with his ability to beat shit up and get the fuck out, because he would  _ love  _ to be on it all the time.

Seeing the True World wouldn’t be such a horrible inconvenience if it didn’t overlay the Facade like a neon outline just slightly off-center all the damn time. Ignoring it wasn’t hard, but ignoring the pain in his eyeballs was definitely harder.

In the Facade, the rock he was facing now looked like exactly that. A big, heavy rock. In the True World, Sanzo could see the seal embedded inside, intricately carved of bright purple and ghostly pink, rotating lazily on a tilted axis. There was a grid sliced vertically through the boulder, a luminescent green-blue that gave the distinct feel of jail bars. Behind it all, Sanzo could perceive a presence, a soul trapped dormant by the magic.

What idiot had fallen prey to this pathetically obvious trap, Sanzo didn't know. But that idiot had been crying in his head for well over a year now, and Sanzo was done listening to it. 

He was going to break them out of this other worldly jail cell and slap the living daylights out of them.

If they were living. When it came to the True World, you could never really know.

Before he had been deemed a master and allowed to leave with the scripture in his pocket, Sanzo would have needed to take it out and unroll it to utilize its magic. Now, and for many years already, Sanzo could pull from its power and channel it through himself without ever giving away where it was on his body, or that he really had it at all.

Sanzo pressed his fingers to the stone and drew them along the path of the seal, creating a counter-spell in their wake. The spells of a Sanzo priest, and in fact magic in general, had gotten more subtle over time. As the desire for the power of the scriptures grew in an increasingly desperate world, the murder rates of the priests sworn to protect those scriptures sky-rocketed. 

The most effective method for keeping the scriptures in the correct hands became subterfuge. If no one but the Sanzos knew who had the scriptures, then enemies of the temple didn't know who to follow and ambush. Slaughtering hundreds of monks only to come up empty handed was a magnificent deterrent, and eventually the slaughter ceased. Nobody was getting anywhere, and everybody was getting tired. 

Sanzo pressed the power at his command against the seal and watched as it slowly unravelled. It wasn't a complicated spell, but it was an old one. Only a magic greater than the one that created it could undo it, and the scriptures were something like magical juggernauts. Thus, it was no trouble at all for Sanzo to break. 

The soul inside began to wake up, and as it did, it became visible. A small, soft light grew brighter as it emerged back into the Facade from the True World lock box it had been stuck in. Like a tear in space, the light broke and a body uncurled and fell through the rock.

Sanzo didn't bother to catch it.

He watched as a young man dropped to the hard, dusty ground and stayed there. He even looked stupid. He had long hair, pointy ears, and sheer, glittering wings that began to twitch and flutter as Sanzo stared. He was waking up. 

“Owww…”

Definitely an idiot. Sanzo scoffed and tucked his hands into the pockets of his coat. An idiot fairy, by the look of things. Maybe a pixie, but if he was, he was a huge fucking pixie.

The man, maybe a boy, but fairies and pixies always looked young, so it was hard to tell, rolled over onto his side and pressed a hand to his head in pain. Yeah, it probably did hurt to be stuck under a rock for  _ years.  _ Sanzo rolled his eyes and leaned his weight onto one foot, preparing to nudge them awake if they didn’t get up on their own soon.

He needn’t bothered. A bare moment later, huge, bright gold eyes blinked open and met his gaze. Despite himself, Sanzo caught his breath and held it, anticipation he didn’t intend to feel keeping him still. 

A moment passed. And then another.

The dumbass was  _ staring.  _ Sanzo’s eyes lidded in annoyance, and then he kicked the man’s shoulder to break him out of it and also to make himself feel better. 

“Ow!” he cried out in indignation more than actual pain. A strong hand, fingers thick with muscle, gripped their shoulder as he rolled up into a seated position to glare at Sanzo, “What was that for?”

“You’re annoying me,” Sanzo answered, uncaring. “You’ve been annoying me for fucking  _ years.  _ You deserve that.”

The man’s brows furrowed in confusion, “Years? But I’ve never seen you, before.”

“No shit,” Sanzo scoffed, “You’ve been stuck under a rock longer than I’ve been alive.”

Those golden eyes widened again, and the man turned suddenly to stare at the huge boulder behind him. Impossibly, they grew even wider as the realization of what must have happened registered in his brain. 

At least he had a brain. Sanzo hadn’t been sure until now. 

“How long was I in there for?”

Sanzo snorted, “I don’t know. But you’re out now. So you can stop calling me.”

“How could I be calling you?” he asked, exasperation clear in his voice, “If I was stuck under a rock like you say.”

Sanzo shrugged, “Because I can hear things other people can’t, and souls can speak without need of a physical voice. It doesn’t matter. Are you going to shut up now?”

Bright eyes blinked up at him as thin lips pressed together in thoughtful consideration.

And then, “Probably not.”

Sanzo rolled his eyes and turned away. Great. Fuck. “Whatever. If you don’t shut up, I’ll shoot you.”

He heard the shifting of dirt and small rocks behind him, and then hurried footsteps. Perfect. “I don’t think that’ll kill me,” he said.

“It will make me feel better,” Sanzo replied.

“I’m Goku, by the way,” the man said, now walking backwards beside Sanzo to face him as they left the boulder behind.

After several seconds of silence, he spoke again.

“This is the part where you tell me  _ your  _ name.”

“Tch,” Sanzo scoffed, “Why should I?”

Goku spun on his heel to walk properly, “Because otherwise I’ll call you, ‘you,’ or whatever else comes into my head. Trust me, you’d rather I just know your name.”

“What makes you think you’ll be hanging around that long?”

Goku laughed shortly, “Because I’m a fairy! We sort of live a very long time, and hanging around is what we  _ do.”  _

Sanzo closed his eyes, and for the first time in a  _ very long time,  _ prayed. Just great. He should have left the idiot in the rock.

-

It was still dark out when Sanzo rose from sleep. It was always dark when he woke, except for the soft bells of light from his lamps outside.

He prepared for the day by dressing warmer than he would need by the time he was done, but this early in the morning there was always a chill that clung to the earth and made it annoying to do his job. He left his wagon packed at the end of each day so that he didn’t need to fuss with it before he left in the morning. No amount of tea or coffee had ever made Sanzo any less irritable about having to go to work.

The good news was, Sanzo had the entire day to shed his warmer clothes and hide from the sun inside before he had to return in the chill of the evening to work again.

Sanzo chose a strong tea this morning and filled a tall mug that he set on the edge of his wagon before he set out, hook in hand to snuff the lights. It was still fairly dark, but light enough to see with adjusted eyes. He liked to replace the candles in the morning, when taking the extra time to do it wouldn’t have anyone complaining that another part of the town remained lightless while he was delayed. If the lights burned while the sun was up, the only person it inconvenienced was Sanzo, himself. 

He had pulled the ladder from his wagon to replace one such candle when he noticed a presence below him that hadn’t been there before. 

The idiot had looked a lot less stupid out in the mountains, where he’d been dressed in the usual flowy and loose garments of the fairies. Now, he was trying to blend in, and he had chosen too-baggy of trousers, too-large boots, too-small of a vest, and a hat that made him look more like a boy than he should. The wings were there. Sanzo could see them. But average, every day humans could not. Sanzo wished that didn’t irritate him, but  _ everything  _ about this idiot got under his skin.

“Morning!”

Sanzo didn’t return the greeting. He didn’t want to encourage him. 

“You’re such a bore, Sanzo.”

Every day, Sanzo regretted telling the brat his name.

“Any special plans for the day?”

He knew there weren’t. Sanzo did the same thing every day. The less he deviated, the less attention he drew to himself.

“Aww, c’mon, Sanzo. At least say hi!”

Sanzo triple-checked that the candle wasn’t going to fall over, then began his descent on the ladder. To be fair, Goku didn’t seem to be around him every day. Sanzo didn’t know where the monkey fled when he wasn’t around here, but he was thankful for the reprieve when he got it. The fairy was perfectly capable of appearing and disappearing at will, and sometimes Sanzo could see when he was merely outside the Facade, but other times he seemed to be completely gone, somewhere else. 

Whatever.

“What are you doing here?”

Goku smiled and linked his hands behind his head, “Came to visit you, duh. Same as I always do. Hey, do you have any more of those beef sandwiches? Those are really good and I’m hungry.”

Sanzo wanted to hit him. Unfortunately, all he had to hit him with were some frail candles and the hook that was his livelihood. And his fist. Sanzo strongly considered his fist. 

Nah, the bruises weren’t worth it. 

“Those are for lunch, and the sun isn’t even up, yet. Go find someone else to feed you.”

Goku followed him to the next lamp, as he was likely to follow him all day, “Aw, but Sanzo, nobody makes them like you do. And lunch is relative! What if I said I’d been up all night?”

“Then I’d say you were an idiot,” Sanzo answered, deeming this candle tall enough to burn for another night and moving onto the next, “but I say that, anyway.”

“Yeah, you do,” Goku agreed, “It’s getting old. But I  _ was  _ up all night and I  _ am  _ hungry.”

“Not my problem,” Sanzo replied in a bored tone.

“Sure it is,” Goku chirped, “because I won’t shut up about it until you feed me!”

Sanzo closed his eyes and counted to ten because beating the absolute shit out of the monkey would only draw undue attention to himself, and he was very specifically  _ not  _ supposed to do that. 

“How about this?” Sanzo decided to bargain, for his sanity, “I’ll feed you if you shut up about it until my job is done.”

Goku’s eyes widened in unexpected joy and he answered immediately, “Deal!”

Jokes on the monkey. Sanzo’s job was never done.


	2. Chapter 2

“Who the hell are you?”

As disconcerting as it was to wake up every now and then with Goku already in his house, Sanzo was getting used to it. Unwillingly, but all the same, used to it. 

He was not ready to start waking up to  _ more  _ unwelcome guests. If this trend continued, he might actually have to commit murder. Which would be way more troublesome than he wanted, because he’d have to actually plan it if he wanted bodies to go unnoticed. Tch.

“Hakkai!”

Sanzo stood in the doorway to his sitting room as Goku rushed past to launch himself bodily at the stranger in Sanzo’s home. At least he had a name, now. 

“How did you get here, Hakkai? I didn’t even know elves were around here!”

Elves, huh?

“They’re not, Goku,” Hakkai smiled, and Sanzo didn’t believe it for a second, even if the way his arms held Goku seemed genuine in their care, “Word travelled and I heard you were here, so I came to see if it was true. You’ve been gone a long time, Goku.”

“Really?” the fairy asked, climbing down from his perch on the elf, “I kind of figured, because nothing really looks right and I can’t find any other fairies around here, but your face hasn’t changed a bit! You look exactly the same!”

Hakkai laughed and placed a friendly hand on Goku’s shoulder, “That’s because I’m an elf, silly. We live even longer than you. Goku,” and his voice suddenly took on a deeper, heavier tone, “It’s been five hundred years.”

Goku went very still in a way Sanzo had never seen before. He was always moving, always twitching, always fidgeting, except in this moment. His eyes glazed over and Sanzo knew he wasn’t here anymore. He was somewhere else. Maybe the past.

Sanzo didn’t bother trying to comprehend it. Humans did not live for five hundred years, much less beyond that, so there was no way to understand or relate to possibly  _ losing  _ five hundred years. Sanzo might not even have fifty, all things considered. And truthfully, he was fine with that.

He was not fine with a random man in his house, claiming to be an elf, acting like he had done nothing wrong by breaking and entering like this. 

“You never answered,” he forcefully demanded,  _ “Who the hell are you?”  _

“Cho Hakkai,” the man said, stepping forward beyond Goku to extend his hand in greeting, “I’m an elf from the south. I knew Goku for many years before he vanished.”

Sanzo didn’t spare the hand a glance, “And that means you can break into my house, why?”

“Sanzo!” Goku cried, apparently done with his shock and crossing the room in one leap to stand by Sanzo’s side, “Hakkai, Sanzo is who let me out! If not for him, I’d still be in there.”

“In where?” Hakkai asked him, but his eyes were on Sanzo’s face. Did he not expect Goku to know?

“A big rock!”

Okay, maybe Goku  _ was  _ a terrible source of information. “A boulder on Mt Gogyou had been marked with a seal. He was trapped inside.”

Hakkai’s gaze sharpened, “Trapped? Or stuck?” Finally he turned to Goku.

Who shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t remember how I got inside, and I was asleep the whole time. Or something like it.”

“Your memory could come back to you with time. If you remember anything, Goku, tell me immediately.” Then the smile was back, and Hakkai’s entire face softened with such intentional measure that Sanzo wasn’t sure it would fool anyone, even Goku, “Until then, I better get you caught up on what you missed. Five hundred years makes for a long story!”

“Tell it somewhere else,” Sanzo snapped, turning toward a window alcove to grab a smoke before he had to head out into the evening to light the lamps. 

“Aww, don’t mind him,” Goku cooed, and Sanzo wanted to go find his revolver and shoot him, “He’s always grouchy when he wakes up from one of his naps.”

Hakkai’s smile widened, and Sanzo wanted to shoot him, too. “Aren’t naps supposed to make you feel better?”

Goku lead Hakkai to one of the armchairs, and Sanzo wondered when he gave the monkey permission to act like this was where he lived, too. “Yeah, but Sanzo doesn’t really sleep well ever. He has to be up at sunset  _ and  _ sunrise and those are sometimes really close and sometimes kinda far and I think he’s sad a lot or something, so he almost never sleeps the whole night, anyway.”

And Sanzo was actually going to have to murder him. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not even here, dumbass.”

Goku huffed a laugh and looked right at him, bold and unafraid. Sanzo would have to do something about that. “Well, I’d include you in the conversation, but I know you don’t really want me to, so…”

Fuck him. Sanzo took a long drag on his cig.

Hakkai pulled Goku’s attention back to him, “What’s at sunset and sunrise?”

“The lamps!” Goku said this like lamps were something incredible, some work of esoteric genius, “He has to light them and then put them out again. And sometimes he has to replace them or fix them and stuff.”

Hakkai eyed Sanzo with what looked like real curiosity, but felt like feigned interest, “You’re a lamplighter?”

_ “Is that what they’re called?”  _

Goku was such an idiot. Sanzo flicked the ash from his cigarette outside, “Yeah. What of it?”

“It’s an interesting profession,” Hakkai said, “You don’t hear much about lamplighters. Do you do anything else during the day?”

Sanzo hated this particular implication. It was a known stigma of the profession to be referred to as lazy or uninspired if  _ all  _ they did was their job. Only having to work a few hours in the morning and a few more at night clearly left the entire day to work on something else, didn’t it?

Nevermind that the turnover in the summer was only a handful of hours at night, and after Sanzo had packed his stuff away and undressed, if he wanted to have the time to dress and be ready again in the morning, he could only grab a few hours of sleep. His was one of few professions entirely dependent upon the whims of the sun. If he had another task to do during the day, not only would it overlap with his lamplighting duties in the winter, he would suffer the summer without any rest at all. 

And Sanzo needed his rest if he was to be alert for any threats to the scripture. 

Threats like  _ strangers in his household.  _

"I knit," he answered satirically.

Hakkai looked bemused, but Goku gasped like this was the most exciting news he had ever heard, "Can you make me a hat?"

"I don't think he was being serious, Goku."

"Aww," and he even sounded truly let down, "but I like hats."

Sanzo didn't roll his eyes, but only just, "Then make your own damn hat, Monkey."

"But it would be better if you made it," he insisted. He left Hakkai to sit in the chair nearest to Sanzo's perch, "It would be special. There's magic in things like that, you know."

Sanzo did know. He could see it: the wishes woven into everyday objects. They glowed sunshine yellow and grassy green. They hurt his eyes. 

"I'm not making you a hat."

"Alright, fine," Goku grumped, and slid back onto his feet, "but I'm gonna make you your tea. Maybe you'll be less of a grouch that way."

Tough chance.

"I admit," Hakkai broke into their conversation just as Goku slipped into the next room, "I don't understand what Goku sees in this place. I can tell it's interesting," and when he said this, his eyes were on Sanzo in a way that made him feel looked  _ through  _ rather than looked  _ at,  _ "but why he chooses to stay…"

Something about this set Sanzo on edge, even more than waking up to a surprise guest. He didn't like the way Goku's motives were being pulled apart, or the implication that Sanzo shouldn't be worth his time. And Sanzo  _ didn't,  _ particularly, want to be worth his time, but he felt stronger that what Goku spent his energy on should be  _ Goku's  _ choice. Especially, somehow, after losing five hundred years to napping in the wrong place.

"If you don't see it, you don't have to stay," he snapped, and dismissed the elf by turning back to his window.  _ "I'm  _ certainly not keeping you here."

Hakkai made a very noncommittal sound and settled comfortably into his seat, "that's true. Mind, you haven't quite kicked me out yet, either."

-

"I'm not running a fucking  _ hotel,"  _ Sanzo ground out between his teeth.

"That's true," Hakkai nodded sagely, "If this were an inn, I wouldn't have to sleep in a chair every night."

"You don't have to sleep here at all," Sanzo argued, caught in the doorway once again. He was going to start to hate his own sitting room if he kept finding new people in it every couple of days. At some point he was going to have to declare it a wash and just burn the whole thing down to get rid of them.

Goku's familiar form was perched on the back of a chair, because sitting properly never seemed to occur to the idiot. His reluctantly tolerated guest in Hakkai was primly seated on Sanzo's utilitarian couch. And now, because no one in this house took him seriously, there was a new redhead leaning casually against the wall near his window seat, obviously just to mock him. 

"You're not sleeping on the couch?" the stranger asked, ignoring Sanzo completely.

"At first I was leaving it for Goku," Hakkai informed, "because that seemed like the polite thing to do. I forgot, of course, that Goku doesn't actually need to  _ lay anywhere _ to sleep, so really I was just being foolish, but by now I'm emotionally attached to my chair and don't want to change."

The stranger snorted a laugh, "A lot of what you just said is pretty dumb, but I'll let it pass because that means I get the couch and that works for me."

Sanzo wanted to demand why the asshole thought he would be  _ allowed  _ to sleep on the couch, but the earlier information from Hakkai was too pressing, "What do you mean Goku doesn't have to sleep? He bitches about being tired all the time."

"I do not!" Goku squawked indignantly.

He was ignored. The redhead answered before Hakkai could, "He sleeps, he just doesn't have to lie down to do it. Your precious monkey sleeps like a dead fish in water."

"Or," Hakkai went to correct him with a kinder analogy, except… he struggled, because there really wasn't one. "No, yeah, I guess it is like a fish. But it doesn't have to be a  _ dead  _ fish, Gojyo." 

"I'm just saying, the first time I caught him sleeping, I checked his pulse. Statement of fact."

“Yeah, but you live in a  _ river,”  _ Goku accused, “You see dead fish all the time.  _ Normal people  _ don’t see dead fish that much.”

Hakkai was quiet for a long second, but everyone could see he was picking out his next words to say, and they waited. 

“...I also checked his pulse the first time I saw him sleeping.”

_ “HAKKAI!”  _

“Shut up! Why are you yelling?” Sanzo interrupted, pushing Goku’s head down and forcing him properly into his seat. His house had become a circus and he was  _ not here for it.  _ He turned to the man named Gojyo, “You. If you live in a river, why are you planning to sleep on my couch?”

He shrugged, “Because the river’s a bit of a jog and I wanna see how Goku’s doing.”

“You can take him back to the river with you.”

“Sanzo!”

“Harsh,” Gojyo winced and gestured with his thumb at Sanzo, “Hey, Monkey, I thought you said you were welcome here?”

Goku looked a little pained, “‘Welcome’ might be a bit of a stretch…”

“More than a bit. I never said  _ any  _ of you could stay here,” Sanzo reminded.

“But he makes these really awesome beef sandwiches if I ask,” Goku said excitedly, eager to tell Gojyo all of the great reasons he liked to stay, “and he doesn’t hit me half as much as he used to!”

Sanzo shoved the monkey’s head down, just to show that he was still  _ willing.  _

“It’s true,” Hakkai said kindly to Gojyo, “We are encroaching on his space and his time. Therefore, we should try to stay out of his way as much as possible.”

Sanzo’s eyes narrowed to slits as he stared at the elf, wondering what the catch was. Hakkai hadn’t seemed so concerned for Sanzo’s good will over the past couple of days, anyway. “So does that mean you’ll get out of my house and get lost now?”

“Oh, of course not,” Hakkai’s smile widened, “I’m just hoping Gojyo won’t be as loud as Goku.”


	3. Chapter 3

Sanzo only didn’t bring it up daily because losing fights daily would be the kind of blow his reputation couldn’t survive. If he wasn’t willing to murder them, then Sanzo had to accept that the fairy, the elf, and the… water sprite? were here to stay. 

Or at least, stay for a while. Goku still disappeared from time to time, as did Hakkai, but in the week after his arrival, Gojyo seemed to make it a point to stick around and be annoying as much as possible. 

In that same week, the town gained some color. A festival was approaching at the end of the month and some preparations were being made well in advance. Sanzo had been roped into decorating his lamps for the occasion, which made his rounds take considerably longer that night. 

Since Goku and Gojyo insisted on following him around, he made them carry the colorful shit.

“That looks so cool, Sanzo!” 

Gojyo nudged Goku with his elbow, “It looks exactly the same as the last…” Gojyo checked over his shoulder, “fifteen.”

“Yeah?” Goku challenged, “And all fifteen look cool!”

“Not sure cool is the word I would use,” Gojyo muttered under his breath. Sanzo dropped the hammer he was using to pin the decor over Gojyo’s head. Only quick-thinking and trained reflexes got his head out of the way and replaced it with his hand in time to catch the hammer instead. 

“Stop antagonizing the monkey.”

“Stop calling me monkey!” Goku shouted upward, but then the fight fell out of him and he casually shrugged, looking around. “I just like it, okay? This stuff didn’t exist five hundred years ago.”

They let the mood be dim for a total of five seconds before Gojyo ruffled Goku’s hair and pressed down on his head, “Aww! Look at the sad monkey! Did we teach him to do that?” Gojyo looked up at Sanzo inquisitively.

“Knock it off!” Goku cried, shoving Gojyo’s hand from his head, “Stop acting like I’m a kid, or something! I’m older than you, remember?”

“Not by years actually _lived,”_ Gojyo teased, “Not anymore.”

Goku pouted at him, “That hurts.”

“Not as much as it will hurt,” Sanzo threatened quietly as he stepped off his ladder, “when I beat you within an inch of your life for not _shutting up.”_

Gojyo looked pensive. “You know, you threaten that a lot, but you haven’t actually done it ye- OW!” He held his hands on either side of his face in pain from where Sanzo had boxed his ears.

There was no one else on the street and besides, it was worth whatever attention he might have drawn to finally get to hit the fucker.

“You were saying?”

“Nice one, Sanzo,” Goku praised, and Sanzo wondered why he seemed so sure that he wasn’t about to get hit, himself. “So, I get that these banners and decorations are all for the festival. But what’s the _festival_ for?”

“The upcoming eclipse,” Sanzo answered shortly, pulling his wagon over to lead his unwanted crew to the next lamppost.

Goku’s eyes widened in excitement, “So the sun’s going away?”

Sanzo closed his eyes in pain. That was not the smartest thing the monkey had ever said, definitely.

Gojyo was still rubbing his ears, but his expression was less angry and more thoughtful again. “Oh, that’s right. There’s a lunar eclipse this month.” He reached over and ruffled Goku’s hair, “Don’t worry, you’ll get back into the rhythm eventually. I bet your wires are all kinds of crossed after sleeping so long.”

Sanzo pretended to ignore them. He set up his ladder and began to climb. Except, it was hard not to hear the implication that creatures like Goku and Gojyo instinctively knew when eclipses were coming, instead of having to track them the way humans did, and not to think about it. It was rumored animals were like that, too. Did that make his house guests more animal than human?

Goku didn’t even have the motivation to shove him off. His shoulders were slumped, even if his back was still straight, “I wonder how many solar eclipses I missed. I know there will be more, but… eclipses are so rare.”

Sanzo supposed it was a question of what made a human. Maybe animals could track celestial events, but they didn’t seem to _celebrate_ them, and Goku’s remorse implied a reverence, or at least observance, that felt very human. Sanzo wasn’t a philosopher. He didn’t want to consider all of the angles and puzzle out the motivations and lifestyles of the people currently living with him. He just wanted to know what it was he was in for, allowing them to hang around this long.

Gojyo shrugged, “You’ll just have to party extra hard for the ones you’ve got left. And you can start with the lunar eclipse coming up.”

Oh God. Sanzo took another moment with closed eyes to center himself. He did not like parties.

Goku smiled, appreciative if not comforted by Gojyo’s words. He was pretty good at bouncing back, if the way he didn’t have an absolute break down over finding out he missed five hundred years was any indication. “Yeah, you’re right. Oh!” Goku pressed a fist into his other hand, and nearly dropped everything he was carrying in the process. “Does Hakkai know? He’s gotta be real excited! Lunar eclipses are, like, _huge deals_ to elves, right?”

Gojyo looked very amused, and very bemused. “They’re also sort of big deals to water nymphs, but sure. Elves. I’m sure Hakkai is beside himself with excitement.”

Sanzo snorted softly from his spot at the top of the ladder, but Goku must not have heard any of the satire in Gojyo’s tone. “I wonder why he didn’t say anything? He’s gotta be planning to do something for it, right? Or maybe he has to travel back home? We should ask him!”

Gojyo’s face was pinched like he was trying not to laugh. “You definitely should,” he said, “because I’m getting the feeling that despite knowing him for a couple hundred years, you don’t know shit about how elves celebrate lunar eclipses.”

Goku’s face took on a put-out expression, but he was thoroughly distracted from his melancholy, so that was probably all a part of Gojyo’s plan. 

Goku opened his mouth to say something more, but Sanzo was tired of listening to them bicker uselessly about festivals and celebrations that they weren’t even a part of. Sanzo snapped his fingers to interrupt, and gestured for Goku to toss him something with his hand, “Stop yapping and give me that garland, Monkey. I don’t wanna be out here all night.”

Goku grumbled about it, but did as he was told. “What’s wrong with being out all night?”

Sanzo rolled his eyes, but did deign to answer, “The fact that I have to be out all morning, too.”

“Yeah,” Gojyo said, nudging Goku dangerously in the side, “Not everyone can be a lazy free-loading layabout like you, huh? Sanzo’s got a _job.”_

“Shut up, Nymph! I’m not lazy!”

“Coulda fooled me! How long did you sleep yesterday? Twelve hours?”

“I was up for a long time before that!”

Sanzo closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and thunked his head against the hard, dark metal of his lamppost.

-

“No. Not another one. No.”

Sanzo had gotten used to the big, bright golden eyes of Goku. It took him a while. They were so wide, and so innocent, and Sanzo hated that look on children but Goku wasn’t a child, and eventually, Sanzo got over it. 

Now, _two_ pairs of hugely golden eyes were looking up in alarm and curiosity, respectively. He would not have it. “This is _not_ a foster home for lost creatures!”

“Oh. No, Sir,” the new _thing_ said, perfectly calm now, “I’m not lost. I know exactly where I am.”

Goku laughed and used the arm around his shoulders to make the new stranger sway. “That’s not what he means. He means creatures who don’t have anywhere else to stay.”

The new person had fair hair and somehow managed to be shorter than Goku, appeared just as young, but also just as old. He looked around at Hakkai and Gojyo, then back to Goku. “That isn’t any of you,” he said.

“What?” Sanzo demanded, “You mean you all _could_ be somewhere else? Then get the fuck out!”

Hakkai and Gojyo did an amazing job of pretending they didn’t hear him. Goku rolled his eyes and pulled the stranger over to an armchair, “Relax, Sanzo. Nataku doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Goku pushed Nataku down into the chair, then hopped onto the armrest beside him. “So tell me how you’ve been! What’s going on? I haven’t seen another fairy since I woke up!”

Nataku looked sad at this news. “We had to move farther away, because humans took too much of the grass and trees around here. Too much of the dirt dried and it wasn’t comfortable to stay any longer.”

Goku nodded, looking a lot less upset at this news than Nataku was. “Yeah, I noticed. I wouldn’t have been that far out in the desert five hundred years ago, but I sure woke up in it. What else?”

Nataku shrugged. “The elders are still jerks who won’t die, Homura’s still raging against the machine, and my father is still my father,” he said. 

This did seem to make Goku sad. Sanzo could guess. Five hundred years and his... friend had made no progress with his dad and Homura, whoever he was, still had a bone to pick with… probably authority. The machine was usually authority. Five hundred years was a long time for there to be so little change. 

Humans had changed a lot in that time. Our clothing was different and our food was different and our buildings were different. Even the Earth had changed. The land was dry and the stars had moved and everything was changing.

Except his people.

“I’m sorry,” Goku finally said.

Nataku offered him an understanding smile. The kind that didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s nothing you did. But it has been a lot more boring without you!”

Goku scoffed, “How could it possibly be _more_ boring?”

“Because you weren’t there, duh!” Nataku eyed Goku up and down with concern, “I heard you were trapped?”

“Yeah,” Goku said, “In a rock.”

“Do you know why?”

Goku shook his head, “I can’t remember, yet.”

“I looked for you,” Nataku said, as if he absolutely had to make sure Goku knew this fact, “I tried to find you. You vanished!”

“Sanzo says the rock I was in just looked like a rock,” Goku said, “that he could only find me because he could see the seal that kept me there.”

Nataku turned on Sanzo then, “You can see standing magic?”

Sanzo put on his best bored face. It wasn’t a fact he wanted gossiped about and traded around. He was supposed to be _lying low._ For his whole life, if he could. Goku made that harder and harder every day.

But lying was stupid. “Yes,” he said.

Nataku tilted his head. He looked confused. “But I thought you were human?”

Sanzo felt his eyebrow twitch.

“He is!” Goku hurried to say, “He’s just, uh, special. Or something.” Nobody knew where Goku was going with that. Not even Goku.

Sanzo almost wanted to tell them that he was a priest, just to keep the conversation from getting any more inaccurate than it already was. He didn’t really want them to know, though. He just wanted them to shut up. 

“It doesn’t matter why I can see it,” Sanzo scoffed, “only that I can. I found Goku. I got him out of the rock. You can take him back, now.”

“Take me back?” Goku asked faintly.

Nataku smiled guilelessly, eyes wide as he took Goku by the arm. “It’s going to be so fun! I know it’s not the home you remember, but I promise it’s just as beautiful.”

Goku wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic, but he did have a smile for Nataku. “It was beautiful, wasn’t it?”

“Of course it is! Fairies know how to decorate.”

Now that he wasn’t needed, Sanzo made himself scarce. With his removal from the conversation, Gojyo and Hakkai joined in. Something about comparing the elf lands to the fairy realm or whatever. It didn’t matter to Sanzo. He was never going to see either.

Sanzo lamented that his sitting room _used_ to be quiet and peaceful. He wasn’t _un_ comfortable in his own home, but he was annoyed by all the conversation in it. No, it was the loss of control that bothered him. His mission here was to be quiet and stay out of trouble for another generation, and ever since he had brought the fairy back, quiet was just a memory and Sanzo somehow knew trouble was looming on the horizon. 

You didn’t lay low by hanging out with magical beings.

...Sanzo couldn’t be bothered to force them to leave, though. He wasn’t even sure if he could. As much as it was his house, it was their business where they wanted to be. So Nataku’s arrival was something of a blessing. All of them were here only because Goku was. Now that Goku knew where his real home was, he could leave and take all of them with him.

And then Sanzo could have his quiet again.


End file.
